The study found that emergency operations are nine times more likely to lead to such mistakes, and operating-room complications requiring a change in procedure are four times more likely. A rise of one point in body-mass index, a measure of weight relative to height, raises the chances of such a mistake by 10 percent. Researchers say big patients simply provide more room and more fat in which to lose track of objects.

AcornMan: would you rather have a cap on malpractice suits or have insurance and lawsuits make the medical profession financially impossible? Insurance charges and the growing rate of malpractice suits are hurting a lot of doctors, who are merely trying to do their best, but are fallible humans. We need to remember the good that these people do and the rigorous training they've had.Anyways, how will the results of malpractice cases increasing or decreasing affect what is clearly an unintended (but already highly punished) msitake?Maybe if you're so terrified of having something left in you, you should never have surgery.

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Dawg - the instrument and sponge count is NOT NOT NOT optional on any abdominal surgery. In fact it is done two or three times. When instruments are left, the count is usually WRONG (in that it says it is OK, when it is not). Think about it....if the count is wrong, you keep looking until you find the instrument.

This story was edited or different from the one I read on yahoo last night. Anybody else catch it? Something along the lines of "It's more likely to happen in fat patients". Not obese....not overweight...fat! That's friggin brilliant!!

I think its important to keep this all in perspective. I mean, doctors are human, and as such, are liable to make mistakes. That's why counts, before and after, are required.

Not only are there 28 million surgeries in America a year, but most of the "tools" being left behind in patients aren't dangerous. Its much, much more likely to be a small piece of sterile gauze than anything metal. And while we all hear about the huge and hideous clamps that get accidentally left inside people, the reasons that these stories get so much publicity is that they're so rare.

So, 0.00005% of people might go home with a little extra. Scary, but not a terribly realistic threat.

Related but not quite the same: My great-grandma was operated on, but no tools were left in her. Nope- Instead she got someone else's bacteria from a scalpel no one bothered to clean. Now- I can almost understand losing really small, sterile items in a person. Most are no more harmful than a piercing or pacemaker. But using non-sterile equipment? People should lose thier jobs for that.

Actually Normalcy, while I appreciate the sentiment, a sponge is more dangerous than a steel instrument. The sponge acts as a home to the bacteria (because of all the surface area in the fibers) while the steel usually just gets walled off by the body.....remember, we leave steel in all the time as valves, and joint repairs.

But it is true that while 1500 sounds like a lot, it is really a small number when compared to the number of surgeries. And as the article states, most of this happens in severe emergencies - where the nurse who is responsible for the count may be occupied doing something deemed much more important at the time (getting blood, etc.). Also, when the fur is really flying, we often are asking for things at such a rapid clip, that the count gets out of whack.....I always get an X-ray in those situations, but I can see how it can happen.

By the way, I wonder how many clients of lawyers complain about the tool left in their rectum after they bend over and hand over the fee???